Leave the file server!

Well hello there! For users of a file server, I am delighted to say that the time has finally come whereby I can now happily recommend for you to leave the file server and instead, use SharePoint Online!

The main reason that you should do this, is that on 1st March 2016 Microsoft upgraded SharePoint storage from 10 gigabytes to 1 terrabytes, which is obviously a substantial increase.

Obviously then, 1TB will store a lot of files – a lot more than anyone who has been using SharePoint all along would be used to!

A secondary reason to switch to SharePoint Online instead of continuing to use a file server, is the fantastic new Windows 10. Why? What’s so special about Windows 10 you might ask?

Well – the single biggest complaint from SharePoint users who use SP as a file store is the SharePoint interface itself. However, with Windows 10, this is no longer an issue, and here’s why:

To eliminate the problem of the shaky SharePoint interface, we do so by mapping a drive to SharePoint. We could do this before on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, but it was a very flaky feature to say the least. But in Windows 10, it’s not flaky at all. It is rock solid! I have been using it myself for 6 months now and also have a number of very satisfied customers who are delighted to be using it also.

However, if you can’t (or don’t want to) upgrade to Windows 10, all is not lost. So don’t worry! If you absolutely must continue using Windows 7 or 8 then we have a secret third party tool that helps to make this feature work consistently also.

Contact me directly on nphelan@hcs.ie if you want to know what it is… I can’t give away all my highly sought after trade secrets to my competitors!

Also, remember – Windows 10 is free to download before 29th July 2016. However, after that you have to pay – and we don’t even know how much yet! So you really are better off downloading it NOW and if you end up not liking it, you can just downgrade back to what you had before – simples!

Psssst – If you’re wondering how on earth a mapped drive to SharePoint works, then check out this quick video: Click Here